John Reed Porter

He Missed the Train—Then Escaped Enemy Captivity

John Reed Porter was born on November 14, 1838, in Delaware County, Ohio. When the American Civil War began, he entered Union service as a private in Company G of the 21st Ohio Infantry. His military career would eventually take him from the enlisted ranks to a commission as an officer, but his place in Medal of Honor history began with one of the most unusual operations of the war.

In April 1862, Porter was selected for a secret mission led by civilian scout James J. Andrews. The volunteers who took part would become known as Andrews’ Raiders, and their expedition would enter history as the Great Locomotive Chase.

The plan called for the Union volunteers to travel south in civilian clothing, penetrate deep into Confederate territory, and rendezvous in Georgia. They intended to seize a locomotive on the Western & Atlantic Railroad and drive it north toward Chattanooga while destroying track, bridges, and telegraph communications behind them.

The objective was strategically important. Chattanooga was a vital Confederate transportation center, and damaging the railroad connecting it with Atlanta could interfere with the movement of troops and supplies.

Porter successfully traveled into enemy territory with the expedition, but on April 12, 1862, an unexpected event separated him from the most famous part of the mission.

He overslept.

Porter missed the train from Marietta that carried the other raiders toward Big Shanty. He therefore was not present when James Andrews and the main party seized the locomotive General and began the dramatic railroad chase that gave the mission its lasting fame.

Missing the locomotive did not place Porter beyond danger.

He was still a Union soldier operating secretly deep inside Confederate territory, dressed as a civilian and attempting to complete a clandestine military operation.

Within a short time, Confederate authorities captured him.

The situation facing the captured raiders was extremely serious. Because the men had penetrated Confederate territory in civilian clothing as part of a mission to damage military transportation and communications, they faced treatment far more severe than ordinary prisoners taken openly on a battlefield.

James Andrews and several members of the expedition were eventually executed.

Porter remained imprisoned as the captured raiders faced an uncertain future.

Months passed before another opportunity appeared.

On October 16, 1862, Porter joined other imprisoned members of the expedition in an escape. Breaking out of confinement was only the first challenge. Confederate forces controlled the surrounding territory, and the fugitives had to travel through hostile country while avoiding soldiers, patrols, and civilians who might identify them.

Many of the escaping prisoners were recaptured.

Porter was not.

He became one of the small number who successfully reached Union-controlled territory.

The journey transformed his role in the Andrews Raid. He had missed the locomotive seizure itself, but he had still penetrated deeply into enemy territory as part of the expedition, been captured and imprisoned, and then escaped successfully from Confederate custody.

The mission soon became intertwined with the earliest history of the Medal of Honor.

The new decoration had been created during the Civil War, and members of Andrews’ expedition became some of its earliest recipients. Their mission represented an extraordinary form of wartime service: soldiers voluntarily traveling far behind enemy lines to disrupt a strategically important Confederate railroad.

In September 1863, John Reed Porter was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The official citation recognized him as one of the men who, under the direction of Union authorities, penetrated nearly two hundred miles into Confederate territory during the operation aimed at destroying railroad bridges and track between Chattanooga and Atlanta.

Porter’s personal story requires an important distinction. Although the collective Medal of Honor citation describes the seizure of the locomotive at Big Shanty, Porter himself had missed the train and was not physically present during the capture of the General or the subsequent locomotive chase.

His courage instead lay in joining the dangerous penetration into Confederate territory, enduring capture and imprisonment, escaping, and successfully returning to Union lines.

The Medal of Honor did not bring his military career to an end.

Porter returned to active service with the 21st Ohio Infantry and remained with the Union Army for the rest of the conflict.

His regiment participated in major campaigns of the Western Theater, including the fighting at Stones River and Chickamauga and the campaigns around Chattanooga and Atlanta. The war that had begun for Porter as an enlisted private continued through years of increasingly demanding operations.

His service eventually brought promotion.

Porter received a commission as a second lieutenant and later advanced to first lieutenant, the highest verified rank of his military career.

The progression was remarkable.

In 1862 he had been a private traveling secretly through Confederate territory.

By the end of the Civil War he was a commissioned Union officer who had survived imprisonment, escape, and years of additional military service.

After leaving the Army, Porter returned to civilian life in Ohio.

As the decades passed, the Great Locomotive Chase became one of the most famous special operations of the Civil War. The story of the stolen General, the railroad pursuit through Georgia, the capture of the raiders, the executions, imprisonments, escapes, and eventual Medal of Honor recognition became firmly embedded in American military history.

Porter lived long enough to watch the event pass from recent wartime memory into national legend.

He ultimately became the last surviving member of Andrews’ Raiders.

John Reed Porter died on October 17, 1923, in Dayton, Ohio. He was buried at McComb Union Cemetery in McComb, Ohio.

More than sixty years had passed since the expedition into Georgia.

His story remained unusual even among Medal of Honor recipients.

He missed the locomotive that made the raid famous.

But the missed train did not spare him from the mission’s consequences.

John Reed Porter penetrated enemy territory, was captured, endured Confederate imprisonment, escaped, found his way back to Union lines, returned to active military service, and rose from private to first lieutenant.

The Great Locomotive Chase went forward without him, but his own struggle for survival ensured that his name would remain permanently connected with one of the Civil War’s most daring operations.